Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236 agus Uimh. 237 le chéile.
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Questions No. 3 of 23 October 1997 and Nos. 340, 341, 342, 343, 344 and 346 of 2 December 1997.
I reiterate that the proposals put forward for discussion by Ireland will increase the protection for whales by bringing all legal whaling under the control of the Commission and by making illegal whaling more difficult. This will reduce the number of whales killed.
Questions on the position adopted by Ireland at the recent meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Monaco must be set in the context of the current impact of whaling operations on the whale species generally. The current moratorium on commerical whaling has had qualified success. The reality of the situation is that despite the moratorium, Japan and Norway are taking an increasing number of whales legally — under the provisions for scientific whaling in the case of Japan and under objection to the moratorium in the case of Norway. This has resulted in an increase in the number of whales taken from 380 in 1992 to almost 1,050 in 1997. Indeed, I understand from newspaper reports that Norway has decided to increase its quota for 1998. This indicates the limitations of the current moratorium and the proposals put forward for discussions by Ireland are designed to address these limitations. The proposals represent a method of strengthening, not weakening, the protection regime for whales under the International Whaling Convention. The proposals address the threat posed to whale populations by continued uncontrolled whaling operations for commercial and scientific purposes. As such, they do not seek to address directly other threats posed to whale populations such as environmental pollution, etc. However, I can confirm that environmental threats are the subject of deliberations by the IWC which is conscious of the need to ensure that such threats are taken into account in calculating quotas under the revised management scheme (RMS).